Automation Anywhere Reviews

I'm currently using Automation Anywhere for automating Excel, database, and document automation. The use cases are mostly related to the accounts and finance department.

The infrastructure that Automation Anywhere has created is really simple. Compared to other tools such as Power Automate, it is more user-friendly and faster. The benefits of Automation Anywhere, along with my experience automating with Python, make it easier to automate Excel and UI-based automation tasks.

They can provide more features for desktop application automation. They don't have extensive capabilities for automating desktop applications. While we can automate desktop applications using paths, it is not very accurate. I haven't used AARI extensively, but I have created one or two processes that have AARI infrastructure. I have used forms for those processes.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for 4.5 years.

Besides Automation Anywhere, I have used Power Automate. The cost of Power Automate is significantly lower compared to Automation Anywhere, which is one advantage. However, regarding proficiency and overall functionality, Automation Anywhere is much better.

The setup process in Automation Anywhere is really easy. While I haven't worked extensively on moving from development to production in Power Automate, with Automation Anywhere, we just need to import the bot and export it into the production environment. The process typically takes 10 to 15 minutes.

While I don't know the exact figures, Automation Anywhere is approximately 10 times more expensive than Power Automate, possibly even more. I have a general idea of the cost for one runner machine, but I don't have exact information about their charging structure.

They have comprehensive videos related to each action in Automation Anywhere. They have created entire videos and classes on the Automation Anywhere University website, which serves as a direct learning resource. Performance with Automation Anywhere is really good and much better than Power Automate. On a scale of 1-10, I rate Automation Anywhere an 8.

I automate data entry by receiving files from one system and making data entries into other applications. Additionally, I perform file transfers by receiving files from one system and uploading them to another application. I also have OFAC verification procedures, which were previously done manually. I enter a local application, and depending on the pending cases, execute all verification processes automatically, sending responses to other applications. Basically, I have extensive data transfer automation. Moreover, I have automation that receives a file from another system and executes a procedure or invokes a web service to upload or create other things.

The product, in general, is more stable. The latest version provides easier vulnerability management. The new version offers a better experience in recognizing objects. The Co-manager tool helps calculate saving costs. Many of the issues I had in version eleven were resolved in version 360. The cloud version of Automation Anywhere 360 eliminates all the vulnerability management, making it much easier to manage. The application replaced about three employees for the OFAC verification processes, thus eliminating the need to hire more people for those tasks.

The new version requires one project to be open at a time, making it slightly more difficult to manage tasks compared to the previous version. They sell every different functionality in too many separate packages, making the procurement process complicated as it requires paying additional licensing for more features.

I have been using the solution for about six years.

The support is good. Sometimes the technical team doesn't know too much about the situation, and they rely on knowledge articles. However, they have improved.

Neutral

This is my first RPA solution. I have other automation solutions in my company, but this was my first RPA solution.

The initial setup for the initial version, version eleven, is not too complex, medium. The latest version is easier because it requires less infrastructure.

One person was involved in the deployment.

The bot replaced about three employees, saving hiring costs.

I think it is expensive. It is not a cheap solution. Though there are other options that possibly can be less expensive, this is not a cheap solution. It's not for everybody.

My supervisor conducted research based on the Gartner reviews and decided to go for Automation Anywhere. This analysis was made several years ago.

The overall rating of Automation Anywhere is eight on a scale of one to ten. Other departments in my company use Control-M and Ansible for automation. If I did not have Automation Anywhere, we might have needed to hire more people for certain processes. I don't have any direct integrations, but I do have several project integrations via file or triggering a bot when an email is received.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year in my college laboratory. I utilize it for editing, collecting student assignments, data entry, report generation, grading multiple-choice questions, managing lab equipment, student communication, and automatic software installation or updating. The primary functions include handling repeated administrative tasks, data entry, feedback generation, grading processes, maintaining lab equipment processes, taking attendance, and communicating with students. If any software installation or update in the lab is required, I manage it with the help of labs.

The task bot is the most valuable feature, which I use primarily to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks like attendance tracking, grading, and report generation. I also utilize IQ Bots for more complex tasks involving unstructured data, and email automation for sending bulk reminders to students. It reduces my work time significantly, giving me the ability to focus on other manual tasks. Without Automation Anywhere, my tasks would take much more time, as these repetitive human tasks need daily attention.

Overall improvement is needed for non-technical users who face challenges with how to use it and how to perform more tasks. It should be more user interface friendly for non-technical users and enhance its ease of integration with third-party applications.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year in my college laboratory.

When we discuss its scalability, it is available across various departments and adapts well.

There are many FAQs, personal calls, and community forums available. Technical support can be easily obtained through official channels, although sometimes the community forum is not accessible to many users.

I used UiPath before starting Automation Anywhere. I also used Blue Prism, which was difficult due to its need for coding.

Initially, we found it a bit complex, but after learning about it, it served us well. For complex tasks, deployment takes about two to three days.

We can achieve nearly eight lakhs per annum in total savings by using Automation Anywhere.

I recommend Automation Anywhere to other users because it minimizes repetitive human tasks, saves time, and helps reduce costs. I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

I was working for an airline client that had their processes in the mainframe. The application Sabre that they had was all terminal-based. It was very difficult to navigate and capture everything. We automated a lot of tasks related to validation. For example, when someone booked a flight ticket and tried to cancel it, they needed to give some reason. We had rule-based validation, so we had to validate the reasons and assess them. Previously, it was all manual and terminal-based, and then we used Automation Anywhere to automate.

We also used Automation Anywhere to do a lot of PO manipulation. It was done in an application called Coupa. We used to do that automation with APIs. API automation was very easy with Automation Anywhere. We used it to automate such tasks.

Automation Anywhere was introduced as an RPA tool to facilitate the digital transformation journey of the client organization. They wanted to eliminate a lot of manual tasks and provide quality work for their employees rather than them doing manual activities. They also wanted to make sure that a process was in place. They wanted a very low code or no code automation so that even business people could upscale themselves and automate. They wanted to free up their employees from such manual tasks and have a lot of bandwidth to do some other research.

In the use case related to the cancellation of a ticket, a lot of things have to be handled. When you cancel a ticket, the airline has to make an update at a lot of places. Only then you would get the refund. It involves a lot of processes. They could be related to the meal or something else. Even if you have not subscribed to any add-ons, all the checkboxes have to be ticked, and only after everything is cleared, you get your refund. Before automation, the refund process was very tedious. When they were doing it manually, any mistake could lead to incorrect transactions. For example, they might end up transferring a different amount. It was a very tedious process, and it was handled with the Sabre application, which was not very user-friendly. It was mostly a terminal-based mainframe application. It had a user interface, but a person with good experience was required for it. A fresher or somebody less experienced could not do it. You needed to know where exactly to go, and there were a lot of things that you had to learn to do this process. It was always done by an experienced engineer, and it was very manual involving navigating different screens. During COVID-19 times, there was a shortage of employees, and the airline was handling a lot of regulations, so this manual process became more problematic. At that time, we introduced Automation Anywhere. We were targeting only 50% automation, but we were able to automate 80% to 90%. It significantly improved the time to process a request and reduced the dependency on a senior engineer for the process. The robot could handle the process. We had programmed the robot. It was a very good experience. It helped the client navigate through tough times.

When you decide to automate a process, you try to understand the process in and out. You try to understand the exception scenarios and how to solve them. You prepare a process discovery document. While doing this documentation, you try to streamline the process because Automation Anywhere, as a tool, needs to be configured to automate that process. It forces us to ask a lot of questions, such as what if the file to be downloaded is not there. You come across all such things at the initial phase. That helps a person to restructure the process and fine-tune it more strategically. It saves a lot of time. It has plenty of features to do Excel operations. It has a lot of capability for querying. You can read data from Excel and process it using a query. You do not have to do Excel operations one by one. It is very quick. If a person is taking 30 minutes to do the operation, it takes only seconds or minutes to finish it. It provides a lot of efficiency.

You also have a lot of traceability. You have a lot of logs. You can see what happened after a process. When you have an audit, you have some traceability. A person doing a task does not always document each and every step. He or she would just do the task and finish it off. When you automate the process with Automation Anywhere, because the robot is doing the tasks, you get a lot of logs and a lot of traceability for auditing.

At the initial stages of automation, you also redefine and optimize a process. Instead of downloading 4 Excel files at different places, you try to standardize it. You give a standard name and a standard path. Everything is standardized, and a lot of focus is put on security and data privacy. We are very conscious of not saving it at any location that is accessible to anybody else. Subconsciously, we do all these checks. It improves the security and data privacy aspects. It also leads to process optimization. Like any RPA tool, it saves a lot of time, and it is efficient, and then logs are there as a good source of tracking.

Automation Anywhere is easy. It takes one to two weeks to introduce a non-technical person to this solution. They already have good domain knowledge, and they just need to know how to work with the tool. In about a week, we will be able to train them in basics. We can show them the interface. We can show them what goes where, but they will not be able to develop full automation or know about full RPA coding. They can get the basic knowledge in one to two weeks. Full training will require building a use case. It could be a small use case. If a developer would take four weeks, which includes development, testing, and other things, a non-technical person would require eight weeks. Only then a person will be able to learn completely and become a very good developer.

In terms of integration, there was SAP integration and Sabre integration. There was one more application. I worked only with these applications. If there is a component available, the integration goes smoothly. When you want to go for something customized and you try to build an integration, it is very challenging, but that is common with all the tools. When you try an out-of-the-box integration, it is very easy because they would have already tested that it is working. When you try to build something or customize it, that is when the challenges come. I have seen plenty of challenges with Automation Anywhere when you go for something that is not there in the package. You need a lot of support from the team and a lot of effort. The security restrictions from the organization were also stopping the integration. It was not happening. A lot of errors came, and we had to reach out to the network team and the security team. There were networking and security issues that had to be resolved.

Automation Anywhere has saved time and costs, but I do not have the metrics.

I have not used the recent versions, but it provides a great way to automate. Excel automation is quite valuable. Initially, it was only there in Automation Anywhere. It was not very popular with other automation tools. Excel automation is a very good feature. A lot of back-office activities happen in Excel. It is a very needed feature that Automation Anywhere provides.

In 2021, Automation Anywhere switched from on-premises to cloud. They renamed it as A360. They brought the required changes with this version. Before that, they used to have a line-by-line code view. They did not have a flowchart diagram, but it was very much needed. Because it was low code, a pictorial representation of the code was something that was missing in Automation Anywhere. It was there in UiPath and Power Automate at the time. Automation Anywhere then introduced two views. That gave people the option to use the view that they were comfortable with. That was a very brilliant move. Having two options made it very accessible.

It is very user-friendly. The AI capability that nowadays I am seeing in Automation Anywhere is very good. They have plug-and-play AI solutions. You do not need to know a lot about coding or AI to implement AI in your automation. You can just use their plug-and-play solutions. That is where its real strength is.

Automation Anywhere is easy, but the Automation Anywhere courses are not so easy. All RPA tools have their own academy where business users can go and learn the solution and do things themselves. Automation Anywhere courses are a little bit complex to understand. You need a little bit more time, and accessibility is also a little bit of an issue. They should focus a bit more on the academy and learning materials on their portal. The content should be easy to understand. It is not easy to grasp for a non-technical person. It should be easy for citizen developers. Also, their certification is very costly.

There should be more visibility as an RPA product. Every organization is trying to stick with certain tools. I like Automation Anywhere, and I would like to work with it, but I am not getting an opportunity. Automation Anywhere is not promoting itself to other organizations. Organizations are moving towards Power Automate and UiPath. It could be because Automation Anywhere is not reaching out to companies.

Their community events are also less. There are not many developer events in the cities where IT is there. In Bangalore, India, most of the IT companies are there, so we get to go to a lot of conferences. We get to hear a lot from other vendors, but Automation Anywhere's events are very limited. They should take care of their presence in the community and companies.

They should introduce videos for the new features. They should promote new features. They should be known to people. They should be accessible to people. Only then developers or companies will know about it. Only then, it will get used. There are probably plenty of good features, but they are not known or explored.

I worked with Automation Anywhere for 2 years.

It is a stable product. I would rate it a 7 out of 10 for stability. It is not a perfect product, but it is improving every day.

It is not very scalable. I would rate it a 6 out of 10. After you have built your robot, if you want to make some changes, you can do that, but if you built a robot and you want to make it an AI-enabled robot, it is quite a challenging task.

There were many users of this solution. I was a part of the Center of Excellence. The finance team and HR team were also trying to use it. There were more than 50 people for this solution.

I was getting good support from them. I would rate them a 9 out of 10. They were always very helpful to me. My colleagues have had a bit of a bad experience, but I did not. I have raised a few tickets, and every time, the person was attentive and helped me out. They were very patient. They were straight to the point. They knew the technology.

Positive

I am working with UiPath and Power Automate. Automation Anywhere has got its own benefits and its own strong points, and the same is applicable to other vendors. It is just about which one your organization is aligned with and which one your organization has chosen to go forward with. However, other vendors are better in terms of reach. Even if I am not working on Power Automate for six to seven months, I get to learn about it. I see a lot of things on LinkedIn. There are communities where I can go to learn and keep myself updated, whereas, about Automation Anywhere, I do not see much information. I have to exclusively go and spend a lot of time to find the information. That is where I see the difference.

It was on-prem before, and then we migrated to A360. It was already deployed when I joined, so I do not know about it, but migration took 4 to 5 months.

There were 4 people mainly focusing on migration. It was a bit complex because it was new, and there was not a lot of material available online. It was a little complex, but later, it became smooth. We reported a lot of bugs, and other people also reported them. It was very smooth.

It is cost-efficient in terms of licensing. I found their support good when I was working for the airline client. However, I hear from my managers here that the support price for Tier 3 or premium is a little higher. That is why we are not going for Automation Anywhere. Its price was okay for our client, but for us, it seems expensive.

Automation Anywhere was a tool that was decided by our client. They were very much satisfied with how work was progressing. It gave them faster results, and it helped them navigate through the Covid-19 situation.

I would recommend Automation Anywhere. It is a very solid product. I have always vouched for it. I see a lot of potential because it is very easy and it was a stable product when I was working with it. They were very careful about their releases. They were not releasing a lot of things, which is something I see in other products. With Automation Anywhere, each release is very carefully tested.

They introduce new features, but I have noticed that in India, the market for Automation Anywhere is not very big. I am not getting to work on Automation Anywhere because companies are moving to Power Automate and UiPath, so I am not able to learn it more. It is difficult to get hold of this solution.

In terms of our organization’s perspective when it comes to automation and AI, specifically Generative AI (GenAI), we want about 50% of the income coming from IT and services. Automation and AI are placed at the top of the strategy. We are moving towards RPA plus AI and ML. It is almost like hyperautomation or intelligent automation. This is one focus area, and another one is Pure Generative AI and data. The data part is handled by a different organization. We are looking into how to drive insights from data analytics and how to leverage the GenAI technology outside and derive value from it. These are highly focused areas.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an 8 out of 10. I liked working with it.

We have many use cases for Automation Anywhere including HR and finance processes, and for the code in our production.

Before implementing Automation Anywhere we had complex data that was huge. For example, with the insurance, banking, and health sector domains. We were able to solve this problem with Automation Anywhere.

As a partner and system integrator, we have access to a vast database of applications. However, there is no direct connection between the upstream and downstream systems, resulting in scattered data across these applications. Automation Anywhere is effectively connecting all the applications, providing a seamless end-to-end workflow that has helped us.

Moving forward we see opportunities to operationalize AI within our organization. We support 15-plus industries and almost 182 clients across the globe. We have different use cases. One of which is for a client for criminal verification automation. This process is complex because we need to get the information from various systems to authenticate the staff. Another is in the healthcare sector where HIPAA compliance is present. So we ensure that we are not touching the customer data. We are using Automation Co-Pilot to solve some of the problems.

We are talking about a powerful tool in Automation Anywhere. They have been in the industry for 20 years and have learning systems such as IQ Bot, Document Automation, and CoE Manager. We are using this powerful tool and getting the best out of the generative AI. We have used the generative AI to solve complex problems for our clients. In one instance, a project that would have typically taken over a year to complete was successfully delivered within just three days using Automation Anywhere and generative AI. We can also extract data faster including clinical data and audio-enabled data for our clients. Our clients want everything as a package and immediately. Before Automation Anywhere and generative AI this was not possible. Now we can provide a solution to our clients within four to eight hours.

Automation Anywhere uses a GUI which is drag and drop. This means even a nontechnical person can use it. There is no need for a developer. With a subject matter expert, in a logistics or health care process, Automation Anywhere can perform miracles. Automation Anywhere is user-friendly and that has enabled us as a partner to help more customers with their digital transformation. A nontechnical person can be trained to use Automation Anywhere in just five days as long as they have an aptitude to learn.

We have used Co-Pilot to enable the digital gate for one of our banking clients with over 30,000 users.

We have used CoE Manager for one of our large clients which easily provides them with a ROI and allows them to see how the BOT is performing. The CEOs, CFOs, and CROs are all able to see how it is impacting their business much easier. CFOs and CROs are now recommending automation to their organizations for the ROI and the scalability it can offer.

Integrating Co-Pilot is a no-brainer. If we are talking about the day-to-day operations, the digital workforce, having a competitive advantage, and scalability, then we have to implement Co-Pilot. It is mandatory and not optional.

Automation Co-Pilot has saved our clients a lot of time. For example, one of our use cases involved a client with 20,000 users where they used to spend 20 to 30 minutes addressing each user's query. With Automation Co-Pilot that time is now fractions of a second. Having to put customers on hold to check information in multiple systems or not responding to emails can result in unnecessary escalation. With the implementation of Automation Co-Pilot the people that used to work on those things are now happy and no longer stressed out because they can now focus on more meaningful work. Automation Co-Pilot improves the employee and customer experience as well as the overall company benefits from it.

Automation Anywhere product catalog has APIs. The API can integrate with any system in the world. It can be SAP, Oracle, Workday, or any complex core banking application. In the cases where Automation Anywhere is deployed on-premises because the organization is regulated, we can go with Automation Co-Pilot which helps connect internal systems without compromising other aspects of data or privacy. The usage of Automation Anywhere is based on each client's needs and the nature of their business.

I have been an Automation Anywhere partner since 2018 and they are always surprising me. Automation Anywhere is customer-centric and on top of the market demand. Automation Anywhere's document automation solution has a 90 percent accuracy rate with handwritten documents. This is a challenge that no other solution has been able to effectively address.

Co-Pilot is a valuable feature. We have a large client with over 30,000 users. A project that size would normally take two to three years but with Co-Pilot we can solve it in two weeks. Not only is it unbelievable to us as a system integrator but also to our clients. 

Automation Anywhere is a powerful tool. The generative AI, hyper scaler with Google and Amazon gives us the power to solve complex problems.

We have learned a lot about how to leverage more of Automation Anywhere on the NLM side.

Automation Anywhere needs to have more testing tools to improve the testing portion of the solution. That would help us do a lot of testing and move on.

The Process Discovery, CoE Manager, and Data Analytics are only available on the enterprise edition. They should be made available for general use and the community edition as well.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for almost ten years.

We have not required the use of technical support for Automation Anywhere yet. When we use new products such as Automation Co-Pilot, CoE Manager, and Process Discovery we use the support. They have a good concept of Orange and Gold support for the enterprise clients. We can get support in two hours with good response times. We can also find a lot of support from the Automation Anywhere Community.

I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten. As a heavy consumer of Automation Anywhere, I highly recommend the solution to many of our clients. The product catalog is simple and the technology upgrades are frequent.

Automation Anywhere is customer-centric and partner-friendly. As a system integrator, we have a hundred-plus resources across the globe to support almost 182 clients. We prefer Automation Anywhere because of what we get from their partner team,  pre-sales team, and customer support manager team. When we are stuck on something and give them a call, they immediately respond to us. This is why we promote Automation Anywhere the most. Automation Anywhere is coming out with new products every six months that are needed in the market. This also challenges us when we meet our clients to tell them we have something new and ask them to test it. Compared to the old version, the performance has phenomenally improved. Automation Anywhere is also helping with year-over-year return on investment. Product wise it is not overwhelming and it has tools such as Automation Co-Pilot, CoE Manager, and Document Automation. Those are the only tools we need and it is easy to understand, utilize, and integrate with any LLMs. With a click of a button, we can integrate with any tool that is available like ChatGPT, Google, or Azure.

Regarding maintenance, for instance, we automated the statutory complaints process for one of the largest organizations in India, which had 65,000 employees in 2020. They have not required any maintenance since then, except for when the government changed their portal and that process only took us three hours to complete. This is because the process we developed is still functioning effectively. The product is stable, so unless enhancements to the existing portal are necessary, there is no need for maintenance.

When upgrading from V11 to A360 we faced some hiccups initially, and after that, we never encountered any problems. We migrated almost 5,000 bots from V11 to A360. We initially estimated six months to complete the migration but we did it in two months. 99 percent of our clients are using A360 which helps us move faster. We initially had pushback from the clients not to migrate because they were happy with what they were doing. After we demonstrated the benefits of cloud-native architecture, including a 15-fold increase in performance, and conducted a successful proof-of-concept, they were happy to migrate to the cloud.

Migrating from other OEMs to Automation Anywhere is seamless. Two of our clients wanted to migrate from their OEMs to Automation Anywhere and we were able to migrate 1,500 bots in two weeks.

I have automated use cases for different domains such as finance, healthcare, and retail sectors. In the finance domain, we are automating balance sheets. I have worked with payment companies where they are creating daily reports such as car dispatch reports. In healthcare, we have patient PDFs. We are extracting the patient data from PDF files and inserting it into their enterprise ERP websites and desktop applications.

What I appreciate most about Automation Anywhere is its user interface. The user interface is very friendly and simple when compared to UiPath and Power Automate. Everything is written in a very simple way. They have now updated with AI agents, integrating all the new upcoming features. It has a drag-and-drop feature, and business users have both on-cloud and on-premises control rooms. They can easily run a bot from their machine after half an hour of training. Business users also get credentials features in Automation Anywhere, where they can save their credentials and the bot can pick them.

The user interface is very good and easy to understand. It features a drag-and-drop capability, which means it doesn't require extensive coding knowledge. Users can simply drag the necessary components to complete their tasks.

Business users can access either a cloud-based or on-premises control room, which operates as a web application. When we create a digital agent or bot for these users, we only need to provide about half an hour of training. After that, they can effectively run the bot from their own machines without needing a developer or support person.

Additionally, there is a feature that allows the bot to interact with users effectively. We can create prompts and Excel files that the bot will read and respond to. The Excel file can remain on the user's local machine, and users can provide instructions to the digital agent through this file. This interaction method is convenient for business users. For tasks like changing passwords or updating website information, business users can do so without needing to rely on developers. There is a credential vault feature in Automation Anywhere, which allows users to view their credentials securely. If they need to make any changes, they can easily navigate to the credential vault to do so.

They can improve by adding some connectors to connect with SharePoint and different applications. In Power Automate from Microsoft, they have connectors to connect all the applications, but in Automation Anywhere, we don't have this feature. Nowadays they have created the ability to create custom packages, but that requires a high level of coding language, so not everyone is comfortable with it. They can improve this in the future. Additionally, the licensing cost is too high.

I have been using this product for four years.

For the enterprise version, there is no lagging or crashing. You can expect zero downtime from their side.

Scalability is quite good in Automation Anywhere. They have a feature of Workload Management, where you can scale your automation to any level. If you are receiving any type of volume, you can scale it up to 100 machines, 200 machines, or any number of machines you require.

Support is available 24/7. If anything goes wrong or anything we cannot handle, support is always there from Automation Anywhere. They will try to provide a solution in any way. If the resolution is not achieved, they will escalate the ticket to a higher level. The quality of support is very fast. Once you raise a ticket, they will not close it until your issue is resolved. Support timing is excellent, but support answers sometimes have bugs. 

Positive

I have done some support work in UiPath, but I have not used it for development purposes.

If we opt for the cloud version, the process is very easy and won't require much effort. In contrast, going with the on-premises option entails some additional requirements that the IT team needs to manage, but it's still manageable. It's straightforward, and there is documentation available that you can refer to in order to complete the setup.

From start to finish, installing the cloud version takes only about fifteen minutes.

Only one person can handle this task. I have expertise in cloud solutions, but working with on-premises systems requires more effort, and I don't have that knowledge.

Some clients, particularly in the financial sector, prefer to secure their data on on-premises systems. This approach requires additional effort. In contrast, using cloud solutions is much simpler.

In terms of maintenance, once they sell their product, we have to maintain all aspects, including how many licenses are used, needed, or going to waste.

After implementing, I have seen that some customers are not getting ROI from that, so they are stepping back from using Automation Anywhere.

The licensing cost is very high. In India, not many people are comfortable using it. In some other countries such as the US or UK, people are trying to use it. This is why clients don't want to purchase the Automation Anywhere license.

Some colleagues mentioned that one or two people are interested in implementing this. I suggested it to them, but they are hesitant because they don't want to purchase the Automation Anywhere license. They feel it's a bit costly, especially since the pricing depends on the volume of use. If they are looking to operate within a limited volume, they won’t be able to utilize the product fully for the cost.

In terms of market comparisons, Automation Anywhere isn't excessively expensive, but it's also not the cheapest option available. When comparing it to Power Automate, Power Automate is definitely cheaper. Automation Anywhere is more expensive than Power Automate. 

Overall, Automation Anywhere is a very user-friendly and easy-to-use tool. If clients are looking to implement automation into their business, I would definitely recommend Automation Anywhere over other tools. It is well-suited for their purposes and can be easily utilized.

Additionally, it caters to citizen developers. For example, if someone in the finance department wants to use Automation Anywhere, they can learn to use it within two months. That's why I have a strong appreciation for this tool.

My overall rating for Automation Anywhere is a ten out of ten.

We have used Automation Anywhere across industries such as banking, finance, health care, and manufacturing, mainly for back office automation. We have used it for traditional reconciliations, invoice processing, purchase order processing, currency exchange, data scraping from a portal, and pulling and pushing data between multiple applications, including integrations such as SAP, Navision, and Oracle. On the front office side, customer service engagements where the customer agent is on call and takes a query are another use case, allowing agents to submit queries into the system and receive responses based on a generative AI model.

We've utilized Automation Anywhere in some front office use cases as well as in certain agent tasks. For users who have processes with numerous manual interventions, Automation Anywhere has introduced the Co-Pilot feature, which provides a chat-like interface for interaction between user queries and backend systems. For instance, in a PO processing scenario where invoice data has been extracted, you can place a form in the process to view the extracted data. If you need to make any changes, you can easily update it on the front end. After that, the data can be sent for approval or posted in a system like SAP or Oracle. This feature brings significant advantages to attended automation.

Previously, before the full implementation of Co-Pilot, we relied on unattended automation. In that situation, the bot would send us an Excel file, asking us to check the PO details, which we would then update and send back to the bot. However, if I weren't available at that time, the file could get overlooked. There were often delays of one to two hours before I checked the file and sent it back. With the integration of the Co-Pilot feature for attended automation, data appears directly on our screen, eliminating the need to wait for an email or worry about missed emails. This integration has significantly saved us time within the operations team.

Additionally, by streamlining these manual processes, we were able to redirect our efforts toward more effective brainstorming sessions. We could discuss what the bot could do and explore further applications of attended or unattended automation. By saving one or two hours, we were able to engage in these discussions with business users—who are responsible for the initial automation—allowing us to gain insight into how the technology and processes work. As a result, more use cases emerged during this brainstorming, as users recognized the capabilities of the attended feature and how it could facilitate additional automation. Overall, this approach has enhanced our efficiency, as automation handles data quickly and accurately, minimizing errors in our processes.

Before Automation Anywhere, clerical errors were quite prevalent, particularly during the finance team’s year-end or quarter-end book closings. While some team members took longer to complete their tasks, others made mistakes, especially with calculations. To address this, we implemented a bot to handle manual reconciliation and book closing processes, significantly reducing errors and saving time. The bot follows its own logic, which minimizes mistakes unless the logic itself is altered.

It's much easier to integrate with applications using this low-code platform. For example, if you want to connect to an SAP application, you simply need to drag and drop the Automation Anywhere SAP Connect action, enter the credentials, and you’re all set. On the other hand, while Power Automate has an SAP integration, it is still in preview mode, and its functionality is not as extensive. In UiPath, some operations within SAP still require coding knowledge to understand how the actions work and how to retrieve data. In Automation Anywhere, the process is straightforward: just get it set up and go. 

Additionally, they have integrated document automation into their control room, which previously was part of a separate suite called IQ Bot. Now, you simply need to purchase licenses for document automation, and it’s available directly in the control room. In contrast, Power Automate does have a native AI builder, but it tends to be more expensive, and many documents are not easily processable. For UiPath, you need a separate tenant to access document understanding and AI capabilities.

The latest feature I want to highlight is the integration of an agentic component with traditional automation, and I believe it's the best one yet. Unlike Power Automate, which currently lacks this feature, Automation Anywhere has successfully incorporated it. They provide a dedicated portal for creating your own agents using a simple drag-and-drop functionality. Users are guided through prompts to select the agent, formulate their question, provide an answer, and determine the scope of the agent. Once that's done, connecting to the control room is straightforward; you can simply drag in and link your agent. This means that any business user, even those without a strong technology background, can create an AI agent and seamlessly integrate it into their existing business processes to automate tasks. Overall, this recent update is incredibly significant—it’s the best feature I’ve seen compared to other tools, making automation both effective and accessible.

I find Automation Anywhere pretty easy to use for business users without tech skills. I have experience with various automation tools, and when it comes to Automation Anywhere, I find that its user interface is quite straightforward. Every automation tool typically includes drag-and-drop functionality, but Automation Anywhere takes it a step further by being more user-friendly. It operates more as a no-code platform rather than a low-code one. In a low-code setup, users might need to drag and integrate components, like dragging in an Excel command to work with an Excel file. For example, if you're creating a pivot table, you can easily select a pivot action. Similarly, sorting or resizing a column is simplified. What Automation Anywhere does exceptionally well is allowing users—especially those without a technical background—to navigate easily. If you know how to work with Excel or Word, you can simply type commands in plain English. For instance, typing "save Excel" will bring up the corresponding action. If you want to "open Excel" or sort a column, you can easily find those commands. Compared to other platforms like UiPath or Power Automate, which may require some scripting and include more technical terminology for their actions, Automation Anywhere is much more accessible for business users lacking a strong tech background.

As for the learning curve with Automation Anywhere, they offer a structured learning platform, akin to a university model. Their educational content is organized into playlists, specifically tailored for different user types. For instance, there are playlists designed for business users and others for developers. These resources are well-categorized, making it easier for users to find relevant information. If you’re a developer interested in admin controls or support services, you can sign up for the developer track to access this specific content. This organized approach simplifies the learning process and makes it easier to understand how to use the tool effectively.

There is still room for improvement in document automation because sometimes it goes into validation unnecessarily. When inputting the field names for extraction, it occasionally misdirects into validation loops, which should be addressed for better efficiency. Nonetheless, the recent updates have made it more stable than in the past.

I would love to see a native integration of GenAI capability within the Co-Pilot itself in future releases. Currently, we must retrieve details from Co-Pilot, send them to the LLM for a response, and then return the information. I would really appreciate it if this integration happened. It would be a significant enhancement, similar to how Microsoft Power Automate functions as a traditional virtual assistant. Such an integration would be very beneficial because clients often request use cases that are closely related to chatbot functionality. Currently, this aspect is somewhat lacking in Co-Pilot. If it gets integrated, it would offer a considerable advantage.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for around about five and a half years.

I have not experienced any downtimes, crashes, or stability issues with Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere is indeed scalable; you can add as many licenses and bots as needed. The only consideration is to avoid running multiple bots simultaneously on a single machine, as this would cause them to queue until the first one completes.

We had a lot of questions during our initial phase. For non-fatal issues, such as development problems related to actions or agents, they typically respond within a day. At first, when you create a support case, the portal recommends relevant articles that address similar issues. If you find a solution in those articles, you won’t need to wait for a support ticket response, as the information is already available. If it is indeed a development issue, a response is expected within a day. For fatal production issues, you can expect a response within an hour.

Positive

I have worked with UiPath and Power Automate. As compared to UiPath, the implementation is very easy with Automation Anywhere. In terms of going into production, it is much simpler compared to Power Automate and UiPath. With UiPath, you need to transfer it to an environment and handle various moving parts, pushing it to a pipeline, and so on. However, with Automation Anywhere, you simply deploy it to a public workspace, and it runs very efficiently.

I also find that workload management in Automation Anywhere is superior to Power Automate. While Power Automate does have its workflows, they are not as efficient as those in Automation Anywhere. The three major advantages of Automation Anywhere are its workflows, deployment process, and the overall ease of use and user interface it offers.

When we talk about RPA automation, the terms "no-code" and "low-code" come to mind. With Automation Anywhere, it truly is a no-code solution. In contrast, with UiPath and Power Automate, you need at least some understanding of coding. For instance, with UiPath, familiarity with C# or VB is essential, as their layout depends on that knowledge. Similarly, with Power Automate, a foundational understanding of logical programming is necessary. However, with Automation Anywhere, you only need to learn how the tool works to create your automation bots. 

On the downside, UiPath is a more stable tool, mainly due to its recording functionality, which includes both web and desktop recorders. Sometimes, in Automation Anywhere, the recording process takes longer when capturing tasks on websites or applications, and there can be internal errors. In contrast, UI Path provides a fast and smooth recording experience. Power Automate also boasts a good web and desktop recorder, an area where Automation Anywhere needs improvement. Aside from the recording challenges, Automation Anywhere has been working quite well for me compared to other tools.

I have worked with both the cloud as well as on-prem versions. In Automation Anywhere, setting up an on-premise environment is quite straightforward, similar to installing MS Office or MS Excel on your system. You simply need to specify the location where the software will reside and configure the database connection. The installation process takes care of everything else, including registry keys, making it quite simple to set up. In contrast, if you're opting for a cloud-based solution, there’s no setup required on your part. Automation Anywhere provides a URL that allows you to access the control panel. All the enterprise-level configurations are managed on their side. You only need to connect to a bot agent, which is also available for on-premise setups, from your local machine. Overall, the cloud option is much easier to manage, as everything is handled by Automation Anywhere.

After setup, Automation Anywhere's cloud version does not require any maintenance. Upgrades and patches are managed on their side, only notifying us beforehand of any scheduled downtimes. However, if you use the on-premise version, you need to uninstall the older version and reinstall the new release yourself. 

Bot maintenance in Automation Anywhere is minimal because the packages can be easily selected and handled within the bot creator. Once in production, changes in logic or UI are the only things requiring attention, which typically involves checking components rather than extensive maintenance effort. If you undergo the upgrade phase, you need to check the packages to ensure they are all set to default. This process takes around 10 to 15 minutes. If any packages are not set to default, you must adjust them accordingly before running the upgrade. Overall, it doesn’t take much time.

In Automation Anywhere, upgrading is similar to reinstalling the Control Room. You need to stop the services, then uninstall and reinstall the software. Since the database is already established, when you install a newer version, it automatically creates new tables in the SQL database, which then run smoothly on their own. Therefore, the upgrade process is essentially just a reinstallation.

Initially, we experienced a small amount of savings due to high licensing costs and streamlined processes. However, as we entered an accelerated phase with more use cases, we realized greater efficiencies. For instance, we had four people performing a repetitive task every day. With the bot taking over this task, we were able to reassign those four employees to different departments where human skills were still necessary. We trained them to adapt to their new roles, engaging them in tasks that required brainstorming, idea generation, and collaboration—activities that contribute to their growth. As a result of this transition, we have significantly reduced salaries and payouts in the affected department. Now, 50-60% of our costs go toward licenses, while the remainder contributes to savings. We no longer need to hire externally for new roles; instead, we are training our existing employees and placing them into new departments.

We started with just three or four use cases, which is typical for any company embarking on automation. After successfully implementing these cases and demonstrating reliable output, the return on investment (ROI) began to materialize. Initially, the ROI was modest, but as confidence in the automation system grew, we expanded our use cases, leading to more substantial ROI.

On average, it takes about five to six months to see significant results. The first one to three months are dedicated to setting up the initial infrastructure and developing the bots. By the fourth and fifth months, we typically start to see the ROI.

Our organization's strategy regarding automation focuses on leveraging existing case studies from Automation Anywhere to educate clients on AI's impact and advantages. We demonstrate use cases already implemented to provide a framework for understanding before conducting process discovery exercises for potential new implementations.

My advice for other users looking to implement Automation Anywhere is to prioritize finding a tool that is easy to deploy and works well for business users. Automation Anywhere offers a user-friendly design that allows actions to be executed using layman's terminology, making it accessible for everyone.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

There are many use cases. It is simple to automate tasks or processes related to the active cycle for invoices and similar tasks. It is useful for automating processes in industries like manufacturing and banking. The use cases are correlated with the needs of the customers.

By implementing Automation Anywhere, customers are simply trying to have a more standardized process. For example, there is a better quality of data for manual inputs in various applications. They have more rapid processes, and they can free people from repetitive tasks. These are the most common situations that we solve with this technology.

We have not had any big problems with the technology. We have achieved the results that the customer expected. We are usually able to achieve the expected ROI with the processes of the project.

Automation Co-Pilot helped increase productivity. For employees, it was quite good. I did face some problems with the user interface that we had to build to interact with the user. There were some blocks in this interface that were hard to understand. From a business user's perspective, it is quite easy to use. From a technical perspective, it is a little bit harder to build a bot using the Co-Pilot features.

It helped to free up staff to work on other projects. Every time we automate a task, we are freeing user time. They have more time to focus on more complex tasks. They can achieve better results in terms of compliance of the data that they are inputting into the systems. The data is accurate and reliable, and they can do more in less time. They can easily meet timelines for various processes.

In terms of integration, we could integrate the pretty old type of browser web applications without many problems. We usually use various ERPs, such as SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite. We sometimes integrate by using APIs. We have Google Drive or Microsoft Teams folders, SharePoint, and so on. We integrate pretty much everything with Automation Anywhere. For some technologies, there are some libraries for integration, such as for Salesforce or ServiceNow, and for some other platforms, you have to build it yourself.

It is easy to understand how to use the tool. For a developer, it is very easy to understand the opportunities and how to use and learn these features. It is very business-oriented. It is very easy to understand the capabilities and the features that you can use. You should have a technical overview and a technical understanding, but it is easy to understand. A non-technical person can learn it in a month. However, this person must be involved with a technical team. A person cannot understand the implications of using this technology and its architecture on his own. A business person can learn to develop some features but to move to the next level, a business person would need some help from IT.

The main problem that I have with Automation Anywhere is the support. When I have problems that I cannot solve by myself, it is hard to achieve a good result with support. Language is another issue. From a technological perspective, I have not had many issues with Automation Anywhere, but the support is somewhat lacking compared to other technologies I use.

There are times when I have some problems with the cloud. I sometimes experience errors with the Co-Pilot feature that make me feel the system is not 100% stable.

It is able to provide automation at scale. This is one of the best features of Automation Anywhere, but if you want to scale, you need technical support.

Its usage depends on the customers. We have different types of models, but usually, it is used at an enterprise level.

It is hard to achieve a good result with their support team. The support in Europe seems to be receiving less investment, so I usually cannot have support in my language. For some customers, this can be a problem. Some customers speak Italian rather than English. 

Neutral

We have more customers on the cloud than on-premises. I am personally not involved in the deployment, but the initial setup is straightforward. It is not complex. Upgrading Automation Anywhere is easy.

The number of people required for maintenance depends on the number of automated processes. For 20 automated processes, you might need one person full-time per month. This can vary a lot on the type of process that you have automated.

You have to work at least a year on that technology, but obviously, it depends on the effort you make. If you have one developer or five, it makes a difference.

It is reasonable, but it can always be a little bit cheaper.

Those who want to use Automation Anywhere should have at least one expert on their team. This can significantly speed up the implementation process and the understanding of the problems. It can be a game changer. 

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven out of ten.

Our company uses Automation Anywhere for enterprise automation of various finance tasks, focusing on accounting. This includes processing accounts payable invoices, managing oil and gas revenue, extracting data from text, and downloading files from our ERP system. These automated processes, some of which are business-critical and complex, enhance efficiency and accuracy within our finance operations.

Automation Anywhere has helped to address process bottlenecks and departmental inefficiency. It is used as an attempt to streamline operations.

It simplifies the management of complex workloads.

Automation Anywhere has a significant learning curve, but it is understandable and reasonable. Having a support team makes the process easier compared to learning it independently.

The training for non-technical users takes one to two months.

We've integrated numerous tools with Automation Anywhere, most notably our accounting system, which is interfaced via SQL and terminal. Additionally, we utilize RPA to interact with various systems employed by other departments.

One of the strengths of Automation Anywhere is its user-friendly interface, which makes it accessible even to those without a development background. As someone who began with no coding knowledge, I found it a great entry point into the world of automation. This accessibility, compared to tools like UiPath, stems from its intuitive design. Furthermore, the capacity to deploy RPA solutions across various virtual devices, a common feature in RPA, is invaluable for streamlining and scaling automation efforts.

Automation Anywhere's API feature is a fantastic offering, providing the valuable ability to call or execute tasks.

As a developer, I find Automation Anywhere's bot editor riddled with minor workflow issues that hinder productivity. For instance, the broken bot package versioning system prevents copying and pasting code between bots with different package versions, a stark contrast to the flexibility of Python. This inconvenience arises even when transferring code between bots within the same process, significantly disrupting workflow. While there are other minor improvements I could suggest, Automation Anywhere has been, albeit slowly, addressing our concerns.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.

The stability of Automation Anywhere is quite good, with few outages from the platform itself.

Automation Anywhere is a very scalable product capable of handling large-scale automation operations.

In my experience, Automation Anywhere's technical support has been lacking. Many of their representatives don't understand the product enough to offer effective assistance. As a developer, it's frustrating to encounter issues and try to communicate them to support staff who seem unfamiliar with the underlying technology. This lack of product knowledge hinders effective troubleshooting and resolution.

Our current support plan is the most basic, so I don't anticipate a quick resolution. However, they generally respond within the expected timeframe for this level of support.

Neutral

Although I wasn't involved in deploying Automation Anywhere, I recall the process being straightforward and immediately successful for the company.

The implementation included a team of four to five individuals supported by a contractor.

We evaluated UiPath and another product that I cannot recall.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

My experience upgrading Automation Anywhere from an on-premise solution to the cloud was challenging despite some helpful features. While a tool was provided to convert version 11 tasks to 360, it introduced unnecessary code during migration. This inefficiency may be specific to Automation Anywhere or a common issue with automation upgrades. Regardless, the process was lengthy and tedious.

Automation Anywhere requires considerable maintenance due to a combination of factors. Our automation of an older Java-based accounting solution causes some challenges. Additionally, automating browser-based tasks in large oil and gas SaaS companies leads to frequent breakage of bots when the underlying HTML or code changes. Consequently, ongoing maintenance is necessary and will be a permanent responsibility for our maintenance team, which includes our project leader and a group of developers.

Establish consistent policies and procedures before doing anything. This aligns with the Center of Excellence framework. Having clear, consistent policies is important before building bots and implementing solutions.

We are a reseller. We first implemented it for an auto company and then decided to implement it for other customers as well.

We use it for workload automation. By implementing Automation Anywhere, we wanted to automate processes. We have not had any big problems with Automation Anywhere. The problems are in other systems.

Before Automation Anywhere, our clients did not have any other tool. Everything was done manually, and now, a lot of processes are automated by this tool. They save lots and lots of money.

We usually use Co-Pilot for approvals in a department. For example, when the accounting department needs to approve an invoice, we can use Co-Pilot and get the data, accept the data, and get the confirmation for the invoice. It can be automated by RPA. There is about a 5% to 10% increase in productivity because it is not so much stabilized for the client, but there is an opportunity to grow up to 40%. We are now playing a little bit with GenAI. We want to use some ChatGPT stuff and approve it through Co-Pilot. We can then use RPA. It could be a nice process. For example, we are building automation to compare the competitors in the market for a retail company. We can use ChatGPT to get some data from the website, and RPA can then make a comparison of these retail companies. We can then give the information to the finance department, for example, to change the price of the product or something like that. This is a really nice and great opportunity for customers.

The biggest benefit is cooperation with the robots. Approvals are great for us and for our clients. It is very nice for this.

We have mostly integrated SAP applications, and then there are also some specific automations for the customers. They usually have some internal applications that they are using. The integration components that we use vary depending on the target application. Sometimes, we are not able to get the data from the application via API, so we can use the UI automation. It is nice for automating the scraping technology for applications.

The main benefit for which we usually start using this solution for a project is to save overtime for employees so that employees are much happier because they do not want to do overtime. However, after that, when we start automating big processes, they are even able to reduce the number of employees. That is an aspect of automation, but overall, companies can save a lot of money because automation tools can help you save working capacity.

I like the new GenAI and Automation Co-Pilot, which is something like attended automation. It looks very nice now. GenAI is the most valuable to me at this time.

Reporting could be better because there is a little bit of overkill in getting information about the utilization of the bot license. This could be a little bit improved.

We sometimes have a problem with the connection between the control room and the database, but it is not very often.

We have been using Automation Anywhere since 2017.

For a small process, it could be a ten out of ten, and for a really complex process, it could be a six out of ten. That is because there are a lot of different ifs or decisions in the process. If a process is very complex and there are a lot of decisions, that could be a little bit bad for the stability of the bot.

Its scalability is great. You can reuse a lot of processes or roll them into different locations if the process is the same. For scalability, it is very nice. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.

Knowledge-wise, they are great, but sometimes, the timing and the communication with the support can be a little bit crazy. Their knowledge is great, but the timing and scheduling of the calls are not so great.

Positive

We have worked with UiPath and Blue Prism. For us, Automation Anywhere is the winner. We chose it because we see the most opportunities for this tool. It is much more modern than Blue Prism. From my point of view, Automation Anywhere has a bigger price value than UiPath.

It is easy to learn how to automate processes with Automation Anywhere. It is not as easy as UiPath, but it is still easy to learn. UiPath is a bit easier to use because it has the UI and you mostly use the boxes. Automation Anywhere is more technical. It is a little bit more difficult than UiPath, but I understand why. In a few weeks, a nontechnical person should be able to automate a short or easy process.

We have the cloud as well as on-prem deployments. We now have something like a robot as a service. It is a hybrid with the cloud and on-premises setups.

It is quite easy to install it and connect it to the databases. The deployment is very easy.

The deployment duration usually depends on the client. It can take two or three days to set it up properly.

It could be a one-man job, but you need help from other departments to open the connection between the database and the control room and everything like that. The installation itself is a one-man job.

In terms of maintenance, a little bit of maintenance is required. The maintenance is mostly related to the bots or processes. It is not much related to the platform. Sometimes, you need to do upgrades and sort out some issues with the connections. Maintenance of the bot is a bit of a different story. If there is a change in the target system, we have to change the bots. It depends on the changes in the companies.

The maintenance effort depends on the version because sometimes, it is very easy to upgrade and everything is good, but sometimes, you update the platform and you need to change lots of bots. On average, it is easy to upgrade it. We can upgrade it with just one button.

Overall, we have nine people working with Automation Anywhere. Our clients are mostly enterprises.

It can save money and resources. You can save everything. There is a huge return on investment with its license.

I do not have the metrics for the ROI because it depends on the utilization of automation in a company. It could be a 100% ROI in one year. It could also be 1%.

It is somewhere in the middle. The price and value of Automation Anywhere are better than UiPath. The pricing is good globally. It could be a little bit cheaper, but it is good.

I would recommend Automation Anywhere because there is a price-to-value benefit. There are a lot of opportunities to save money in companies or enterprises. It is a very helpful technology, and it can help you to be a better competitor in the market.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.